Chapter 16 Chapter 15 I won't play with you anymore, I'm going to the west

Now, it's time for us to talk about the most well-known country - Qin. The ancestors of the Qin State can be traced back to the ancient legend era.If we put aside the fog of legends and look for more reliable information, we can find that the ancestor of the Qin State was a branch of the ancient Dongyi tribe.His ancestor Boyi once helped Dayu to control the flood, and almost became Dayu's successor.Because of his meritorious service in water control, Emperor Shun gave Boyi a surname - Ying. The descendants of Boyi once assisted the Xia and Shang dynasties.At the end of the Shang Dynasty, Boyi's descendant Fei Lian became an official under King Zhou.Fei Lian had a son named Elai and another son named Ji Sheng.Legend has it that Fei Lian is a long-distance runner, while Elai is infinitely powerful. Both father and son are powerful ministers under King Zhou of Shang.In the battle of King Wu of Zhou against Zhou, Elai was killed.And Fei Lian also died shortly after the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty.Elai was later the ancestor of Qin, and another son of Fei Lian, Ji Sheng, was the later ancestor of Zhao.So in the Warring States period, the Qin and Zhao countries had the saying of "a country of brothers", of course this is a later story.

To make a digression, because Fei Lian runs fast, people use him to name a fast-running bug.This kind of bug is everywhere, and it has a well-known scientific name-cockroach, commonly known as Xiaoqiang.Readers with the two surnames Ying and Zhao, do you want to sweat when you see this?Just joking, in fact, the author is also a descendant of Fei Lian. Judging from historical records, the branch of the Ying surname was migrating to the west during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.Elai died at the hands of King Wu of Zhou, so the status of his descendants in the Zhou Dynasty was naturally very low, and they could only go to the remote mountainous areas in the west to make do with it.The western development of the Zhou Dynasty began at this time.

Feizi, the descendant of Elai, was good at raising horses because he lived in the land of Rongdi and had more contact with nomadic tribes.It was the time of King Xiao of Zhou in the Western Zhou Dynasty. King Xiao of Zhou valued this man very much, so he enfeoffed the land of Qin in the west to Feizi, and asked him to raise horses for the royal family.Think about it too, the arable land in that place has not been developed yet, and it can only be used to raise horses.In this way, Qin State became the exclusive Bi Mawen of the Zhou royal family, doing the same job as Sun Dasheng inside.The royal family restored Feizi's Ying surname and called it "Qin Ying".This is the earliest embryonic form of Qin.

However, this Qin Ying was still a small border official guarding the west for the emperor, at most he was a vassal of a small country, not a prince.Later, due to the repeated battles between the Zhou royal family and Xirong, Qin Ying's monarchs of all generations acted as the vanguard of the royal family, and many of them died in the war.It was not until the time of King Xuan of Zhou that Duke Zhuang of Qin was appointed as a doctor in the western frontier. He still guarded the western border for the Zhou royal family and continued the development of the western region by his ancestors.

After the death of Duke Zhuang of Qin, his son Duke Xiang succeeded to the throne.At the time when King You of Zhou was catching up, the famous dog army invasion broke out, and Zhou's capital Haojing was captured by the dog army.Qin Xianggong inherited the fine tradition of his ancestors being loyal to the royal family, sent troops to serve the king, and fought with dogs.During the eastward migration of the Zhou royal family, Qin Xianggong led troops to escort him to Luoyi with Zhou Pingwang. King Zhou Ping's eastward move this time did owe a lot of favors to the princes.It is said that if you owe a favor, you have to pay it back, but the resources at hand are really limited.For example, for Zheng Guo, the reward is to acquiesce in their destruction of Dongguo and Qi.But what kind of reward can Qin Xianggong, who came to escort him, give him?Tight money is trouble!

So King Ping of Zhou decided to give Qin Xianggong a false title first.He said: "Aiqing is loyal to the royal family and has made great contributions to the royal family. I don't have any rewards. Let's upgrade you to a formal prince. You are always called 'Doctor Xichuang'. How ugly. The title, if it is higher, I am afraid that those big countries will have it." I’m sorry for the low opinion, but I’ll just list it as an earl, which happens to be the same. What do you think?” Qin Xianggong of course said yes. At that time, as a minister, being able to crack the soil and become a marquis was also a reward that he had dreamed of all his life.

King Zhou Ping continued: "Well, from now on, you and your descendants will be Uncle Qin. Uncle Qin, it stands to reason that you should be promoted to a prince, and you should be given some land. But you have also seen the situation of the royal family. After moving to the east, the territory has been reduced by half, and there are really no fiefdoms that can be sold. Your Qin land is in the west, and the hateful dog army has already occupied the Qi and Feng, the birthplace of our Great Zhou. This is a good place. , I will seal all these places to you, and if you can recover them, all the recovered land will belong to you.”

Then, King Zhou Ping made an oath with Qin Xianggong in a serious manner, expressing that he would never regret it.The implication is to tell Qin Xianggong that I can't take back those sites. If you can take them back, they are yours. If you can't take them back, don't blame me for being stingy.In fact, in King Zhou Ping's heart, I am afraid that they have long regarded their Zhou Dynasty's "Land of Dragon Xing" Throw it away. Qin Xianggong already has the status of a prince, and of course there is no reason to force the emperor to reward him more.From then on, the princes of the world also had the title of Qin.Although at the beginning, those veteran princes were still a little stubborn and ignored Qin Guoai, but after all, they had obtained legal status.As for the land "rewarded" by the emperor, of course we must try our best to get it back.

Let me add a sentence here, the emperors of the Zhou Dynasty seemed to be very good at promising others empty promises.We mentioned earlier that King Huan of Zhou exchanged the land of Su Weisheng for the land of Zheng State, which seems to be a true biography of his grandfather, King Zhou Ping.It seems that the emperors of Zhou are quite smart. The genes of King Wu of Zhou have been passed down for more than ten generations, and they have not completely degenerated.You see, since you have done enough favors, you have nothing to lose. This deal is worth it!But this is cleverness after all, and it seems to be able to take advantage of it, but in the long run, it is really stupid.

At that time, Xirong was very backward and mostly existed in a tribal state, without forming a unified political force.The reason why he was able to break into Haojing back then was because King Zhou You played too many "wolf is coming" tricks, and the princes didn't come to rescue him, and secondly, it was because of the traitor Shenhou.In fact, if the princes of the Central Plains can stand down and fight with them with all their strength, the bloody courage of Xirong is not terrible.It's a pity that King Ping of Zhou was frightened by Xirong, so he willingly gave up his fortune to Qin.Looking at the courage of King Ping, one can know why the Zhou royal family declined. This is the nature of self-inflicted evil.

After Qin Xianggong returned to his country, he began to formulate a long-term plan to attack Rongdi and regain lost land.He trained the army, surveyed the terrain, and launched repeated attacks on the Xirong tribes.In 766 BC, Qin Xianggong's army fought all the way to the old Diqi of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and then Qin Xianggong died to the west.His son Wengong took over and continued to implement the established national policy of conquering Xirong. Qin Wengong attached great importance to changing his country's backwardness and learning from the advanced countries in the Central Plains.In the thirteenth year of his accession to the throne, he began to set up historians to record major events in the country.This was a culturally progressive measure that won Qin a lot of popularity. In terms of crusade against Xi Rong, Duke Wen achieved brilliant results. He drove away all the Rong and Di forces who had invaded the old land of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and restored the original land of the Western Zhou Dynasty.Those ordinary people in the Western Zhou Dynasty had endured for decades under the rule of Xirong, and now they finally saw the "Wang Shi", not to mention their joy.Although this is not a regular army of the Zhou royal family, but just a prince, it is better than being bullied by Quan Rong.In this way, the old and young in the hometown of the Western Zhou Dynasty willingly submitted to the rule of Qin. Qin Wengong was also a kind man, and he knew the truth of not forgetting the man who dug the well when drinking water. While repaying the victory to the Zhou royal family, he also dedicated the old places of the Western Zhou Dynasty east of Qishan Mountain to the royal family.King Ping of Zhou took back a lot of land lost by his father without spending a single soldier. He was naturally very happy and kept praising Qin Bo for his ability to do things.However, the old people of the Zhou Dynasty on these lands were relocated to their own territory by Qin Wengong, and what was left to King Ping of Zhou was just an empty shell. Qin Wengong expanded his territory externally, and strengthened the construction of the national system internally.The state of Qin's political thinking is similar to that of Qi in the east. They all formulate systems according to local conditions and local customs, so the effect is good, at least better than that of Lu, which is not enlightened. Wengong has been the monarch for 50 years, and he boiled all his princes to death.So when Duke Wen of Qin died, his grandson succeeded him, Duke Xiang of Qin.In order to show respect for his father, Qin Xiangong posthumously named his father Qin Jinggong. Qin Xiangong continued to attack westward, defeated some small Xirong countries, and expanded his territory.After his death, his three sons were successively established as kings.First of all, the youngest son was born. He was only five years old when he became the king, and he was killed after six years.Then the ministers made Qin Xiangong's eldest son the king of the country, and it was Qin Wugong. Qin Wugong is indeed worthy of his posthumous title. He has made great military achievements throughout his life. He not only wiped out many Xirong tribes, but also wiped out one of the five Guos we mentioned earlier. During the period of Duke Wu, there are two other things worthy of our attention.One is "Historical Records" records that in the eleventh year of Qin Wugong (687 BC), "Du and Zheng in Chu County".Zheng here is the original fiefdom of Duke Huan of Zheng.Later, Zheng Guo moved east, and this place was also taken by Xi Rong. During the rise of Qin State, it was naturally taken back by Qin State.The so-called "Chu County Du and Zheng" refers to the establishment of "county" administrative units in these two places.Don't underestimate this matter, because we know that the Zhou Dynasty implemented the enfeoffment system, and the land was enfeoffed level by level. Not only the princes, but also the high officials also had their own fiefdoms.Whether it is the emperor or the princes of the princes, they have no direct control over the localities.The enfeoffed land is hereditary, and as long as there is no major disturbance in the process of succession, the monarch has no right to interfere.But setting counties locally has a different meaning.The county is directly under the control of the monarch, and the chief of the county is no longer hereditary, but appointed by the monarch.This laid the foundation for the vassal states to move toward centralization. Another thing is that after Qin Wugong died, it was not his son who succeeded him, but his younger brother, posthumously named Qin Degong.Moreover, after Qin Wugong died, he was buried with 66 living people.According to the history books, this is the first time that the Qin State initiated the burial of a living person, but I think there is another hidden message behind it.The two customs of brother death and burial with living people tell us that the Qin State is a survivor of the Shang Dynasty. Although it does not have the same surname as the Shang royal family, its ancestors were ministers in the Shang Dynasty after all, and They belong to the same Dongyi tribe as the Shang royal family, and all kinds of customs are inherited in the same strain.For example, the method of succession from brother to brother can also be seen in the Song Dynasty.As for the burial of living people, if we go to the Yin Ruins in Anyang to take a look, we will find that shocking burial pits are everywhere, and numerous bones seem to accuse us of the cruelty of a barbaric custom.Of course, we cannot use today's moral standards to judge the ancients thousands of years ago.What we should pay attention to is that Qin can be said to be a descendant of the Shang Dynasty, and the Zhou Dynasty was established in place of the Shang Dynasty.Anyone with a little knowledge of history knows that Qin will establish a unified centralized empire in the future and replace the Zhou Dynasty as a new dynasty.So in this dark world, is there a kind of circulation in it? Qin Degong established the capital in Yongdi (now Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province), and the state of Qin State will be in Yongdi for a long time.However, some people believe that before the Warring States Period, the state of Qin State was constantly changing, and "Yong" was the name for the capital of the state.In other words, no matter where Qin moved its capital, that place would be called "Yong".The strength of the Qin State made Liang and Rui, two ancient local states, take the initiative to come to court and became Qin's vassals.The territory of the State of Qin has covered most of today's Shaanxi Province, and is adjacent to the State of Jin across the Yellow River. Qin Degong had three sons, all of whom became kings in turn.The eldest son, Xuangong, once had a conflict with Jin, which also marked the beginning of the grievances between the two great powers on both sides of the Yellow River.After Xuangong's death, his younger brother Chenggong succeeded to the throne, and after Chenggong died, he passed the seat to his younger brother Ren Hao. Ren Hao is Qin Mugong, the most famous monarch of Qin State in the Spring and Autumn Period.After the efforts of more than ten generations of monarchs, Qin has become a powerful country in the west.They not only regained the western territory of the Zhou Dynasty occupied by the dog army, but also greatly expanded their territory. Surrounded by the Xirong tribe, although it made Qin's living environment more difficult, it also greatly exercised his military strength.More importantly, the western region is vast. Although it is backward, it has almost unlimited room for development.Moreover, Qin State, like Jin State, has the advantage of eliminating small countries without being condemned by public opinion, so it can boldly carry out mergers with confidence. In fact, Qi, Jin, Qin, and Chu, the four great powers in the Spring and Autumn Period, all had such advantages.They can quickly become a big country, largely due to the annexation of small barbarian countries or small tribes.This kind of merger can not only gain population and land, but will not arouse the vigilance of Zhou Tianzi and the princes of the Central Plains. The successive monarchs of the Qin State not only worked hard to expand their territory, but also moved closer to the Central Plains as much as possible. They learn the advanced culture of the Central Plains, and constantly try to communicate with the princes of the Central Plains, in order to get the recognition of the princes.The countries in the Central Plains originally regarded Qin as a barbarian, but in the era of Qin Mugong, after experiencing the great development of the west, the countries no longer dared to despise Qin, not only regarded it as a member of the princes, but also regarded it as a barbarian. One of the great powers. All these have created favorable conditions for Qin Mugong to show his talents.We will see in the future that Qin Mugong, backed by Qin's national power, began to intervene in the affairs of the princes of the Central Plains on a large scale.This further improved Qin's political status and made it an important country in the Spring and Autumn Period. Qin State is in the land of Rong and Di, and has been working hard to get closer to the Central Plains. It is very afraid that the countries in the Central Plains will reject itself as a barbarian.So what did Chu, another big country in a barbarian area, do?